via Good Deals on Home Appliances.

Crunchgear is at it again, posting more misinformation and dubbing something childish and glittery, “for the ladies.”

The gear in question? Sony earbuds with sparkly colorful casings. Saying they are designed for women is yet another fabrication of the blagosphere, since the product is for the Japanese market where men have been known to drive pink cars tricked out with Hello Kitty. Oh, and the company info is in Japanese.

Crunchgear doesn’t read Japanese. Instead it sources Impress, a tech watch site, then translates it to English using Yahoo. How accurate is all this? Well, the translation has a release date of 2006……

Even worse, the whole thing was picked up and reported as gospel on Apartment Therapy, complete with the condescending “for her.”

Here’s a bit of misinformation so egregious it makes me hope Canon gets litigious.

Crunchgear.com has somehow twisted Canon’s description of a new camera aimed at the teen and tween market. Twisted it with this charming headline, “PowerShot E1: Canon’s women-only digital camera.” For women, because the camera leaves out “unnecessary buttons.”

And because the blogosphere is often one giant game of telephone, Boing Boing’s John Brownlee mucked it up even further. Brownlee is joking, attempting to lambast Canon for its chauvinistic ways. Problem is, he’s reacting to another blog and simply lending legitimacy to Crunchgear’s misinformed premise.

It’s hard enough for product development and marketing efforts to women to be taken seriously without this foolishness.

Laura F. Heller
Writer • Editor • Consultant

lfheller@gmail.com

Specialties/Areas of Expertise

• Business Writing
• Retail Reporting
• Consumer Electronics
• Technology
• Women’s Interest
• Home Fashion/Décor

Freelance, December 2006 to present
• Traditional Home • Contributor, Home Tech • Meredith Corporation • Des Moines, IA
• Dwell • Contributor/Blogger, Home Technology • Dwell.com • New York, NY
• HD Living • Contributor • North American Publishing Co. • Philadelphia, PA
• Photo Marketing Association Magazine • Columnist • Jackson, MI
• Consumer Electronics Daily • Contributor • Warren Communications • New York, NY
• Consumer Guides/Howstuffworks.com • Contributor • Publications International • Lincolnwood, IL
• License! Global • Contributor • Advanstar Communications • New York, NY
• Seemoreshopping.com • Contributor, Blogger • Chicago, IL

Public Speaking/Consulting/Teaching
• Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago, School of Journalism
• Guest speaker and panel moderator at various trade shows and industry events including the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and Photo Marketing Association (PMA) 2003, Marketing to Moms 2006 and the Consumer Electronics Association Executive Summit 2003.
• Guest lecturer, Northwestern University School of Journalism, magazine publishing graduate program
• Consultant to eBrain Market Research and spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association’s TechGirl program, 2002 and 2003. Judge for the TechGirl product showcase, CES 2004.
• Member of delegation to China representing he Consumer Electronics Association, 2006.
• Executed custom publishing projects for Microsoft, Kodak and Motorola.

Experience
Entertainment Living • Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. • New York, NY
Editor, 2006
• Principal behind this special section addressing the marriage of home entertainment and interior design; published in the December 2006 issues of Metropolitan Home and Elle Décor magazines.
• Worked with freelance writers and art directors to select photography and approve layout.
• Wrote features and edited contributed content.
• Worked with Web designers to design and launch http://www.entertainmentliving/methome.com

DSN Retailing Today (Discount Store News) • Lebhar-Friedman Publishing Company • Chicago, IL
Senior Editor, April 2000 to December 2006. Associate Editor, July 1997 to April 2000
• Reported on mass retail industry including financial stories, executive profiles, consumer and retail trends for bi-weekly trade magazine with a distribution of 30,000.
• Specialized in the consumer electronics product category and retail channel, in addition to coverage of Midwest-based retailers Target and Sears Holdings.
• Assisted in all aspects of editing, writing and producing special issues. Edited copy from contributors.
• Established relationships with senior-level retail executives, analysts, consultants and trade associations.
• Blue Chip Awards for Distinguished Journalism, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006

Grocery Headquarters • Trend Publishing Company • Chicago, IL
Associate Editor, June 1996 to July 1997. Assistant Editor, January 1996 to June 1996
• Wrote feature stories, industry trends articles and category case studies for monthly magazine.
• Developed and launched new magazine section.

Education
University of Iowa, Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, 1989

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Paul Mawhinney is trying to find a home for his record collection. All you need is $3 million and a very, very, very large space. The seller went from traveling salesman and collector to record store owner who saved a copy of every record he carried. The Library of Congress calls this the largest record collection in the world and it contains rare, exclusive recordings, much unavailable on CD or digital format. It’s been appraised at $50 million but like with real estate, things are worth only what people will pay and Mawhinney hasn’t found any takers. A jazz fan I know just donated his collection to his alma mater after waiting years for them to secure a grant to cover the climate controlled housing and care the collection will need. View this fascinating interview with Mawhinney, which begs the questions: what price can you put on a lifetime’s passion? And in this day of environmental concerns, reducing our footprint and eliminating the physical from our media, is this a pasttime best relegated to the past?